MY CANADA is now My NORTHERN ONTARIO
Northern Ontario night sky
MY CANADA has been on sabbatical leave again which is a clear indication it needs to change. The different direction might be better served writing about and commenting upon situations in Northern Ontario. The new title might be MY NORTHERN ONTARIO where the degree of neglect from Queen’s Park and Canada’s largest city Toronto is unparalleled in the rest of Canada.
One recent comment suggests the people of the entire province might be better served if Ontario became three or four separate provinces or at least administrative regions rather than one huge land mass ruled by the votes from Toronto in every election. The huge city population does after all contain more voters than the other parts of the province. Therefore the government doesn’t even really need to negotiate with other regions before allocating taxpayer funds to the constantly increasing need for the maintenance and improvement for the Greater and regional City of Toronto. The gigantic municipal area needs simply to outstrip the requirements for the southwest, eastern northeastern or northwestern parts of the province.
Needed improvements lacking in Northern Ontario alone are more obvious than those in the other regions. Highways are unkempt and worse than roads anywhere else in the province. Rail lines are becoming nonexistent mainly due to the fact taxpayer money from rail is impossible to divert from the ongoing escalating needs of Greater Toronto and to an extent other cities and roadways along the 401 highway corridor from Windsor to Kingston and beyond. Northern Ontario roads and railways are going the way of the polar bear and monarch butterfly and will soon be lost and gone forever. Towns along the trans-Canada rail lines are disappearing at an abominable rate, small towns and villages along the cross Canada and secondary highway systems display empty stores and crumbling living accommodation to travelers on the way to the developing west.
The gigantic potential of the Ring of Fire mining in the low lands of James Bay combined with the potential for expansion of the Sudbury area Victoria Mine property, stated to match the original Sudbury basin mining glory, lay dormant. As long as taxpayer money is siphoned off to accommodate the growth of the ever burgeoning population settling in Greater Toronto from offshore, mining potential in Northern Ontario along with the fate of future northern generations will remain uncertain and unworthy of developing for a head start on the days in the future when metal prices rebound. It’s time to get back to developing the potential of Northern Ontario rather than listening to primarily southern Ontario political rulers giving lip service to the north about how much the vast incredibly rich and undeveloped land area will eventually mean to the future of the whole province.
A change of provincial government will not cure the problem. Regardless of which political party is in power or even if a minority government were to occur the need to garner Toronto votes would remain the leading provincial criteria. So planning an upgrade to the lifeline railroad that created the need for people to live in the north and upgrading the deteriorating highways will not happen as long as the Province of Ontario remains in its current structure. The need to open the Canadian constitution will be needed to enact any change in the provincial structure. However constitutional change is far past its best before date and will happen sooner or later. Hopefully changes will happen sooner and the people of the north, east and southwest will have their taxes used to upgrade more than the city of Greater Toronto.
There is a current movement to organize a party of Northern Ontario which might be a good start to reform the future. The only problem with NOP as it is known is the fact the party’s current direction will simply add another political party eventually needing the Toronto vote to assume power. NOP seems fashioned along the lines of the NDP so is faced with the virtually impossible task of wresting power from the north’s strongest left wing political party. Where leadership will come from to refurbish the Northern Ontario of the past is unknown aside from the fact the Indigenous population is quickly developing into a political force. Hopefully something positive for the north will surface before this part of Canada becomes less densely populated.
One recent comment suggests the people of the entire province might be better served if Ontario became three or four separate provinces or at least administrative regions rather than one huge land mass ruled by the votes from Toronto in every election. The huge city population does after all contain more voters than the other parts of the province. Therefore the government doesn’t even really need to negotiate with other regions before allocating taxpayer funds to the constantly increasing need for the maintenance and improvement for the Greater and regional City of Toronto. The gigantic municipal area needs simply to outstrip the requirements for the southwest, eastern northeastern or northwestern parts of the province.
Needed improvements lacking in Northern Ontario alone are more obvious than those in the other regions. Highways are unkempt and worse than roads anywhere else in the province. Rail lines are becoming nonexistent mainly due to the fact taxpayer money from rail is impossible to divert from the ongoing escalating needs of Greater Toronto and to an extent other cities and roadways along the 401 highway corridor from Windsor to Kingston and beyond. Northern Ontario roads and railways are going the way of the polar bear and monarch butterfly and will soon be lost and gone forever. Towns along the trans-Canada rail lines are disappearing at an abominable rate, small towns and villages along the cross Canada and secondary highway systems display empty stores and crumbling living accommodation to travelers on the way to the developing west.
The gigantic potential of the Ring of Fire mining in the low lands of James Bay combined with the potential for expansion of the Sudbury area Victoria Mine property, stated to match the original Sudbury basin mining glory, lay dormant. As long as taxpayer money is siphoned off to accommodate the growth of the ever burgeoning population settling in Greater Toronto from offshore, mining potential in Northern Ontario along with the fate of future northern generations will remain uncertain and unworthy of developing for a head start on the days in the future when metal prices rebound. It’s time to get back to developing the potential of Northern Ontario rather than listening to primarily southern Ontario political rulers giving lip service to the north about how much the vast incredibly rich and undeveloped land area will eventually mean to the future of the whole province.
A change of provincial government will not cure the problem. Regardless of which political party is in power or even if a minority government were to occur the need to garner Toronto votes would remain the leading provincial criteria. So planning an upgrade to the lifeline railroad that created the need for people to live in the north and upgrading the deteriorating highways will not happen as long as the Province of Ontario remains in its current structure. The need to open the Canadian constitution will be needed to enact any change in the provincial structure. However constitutional change is far past its best before date and will happen sooner or later. Hopefully changes will happen sooner and the people of the north, east and southwest will have their taxes used to upgrade more than the city of Greater Toronto.
There is a current movement to organize a party of Northern Ontario which might be a good start to reform the future. The only problem with NOP as it is known is the fact the party’s current direction will simply add another political party eventually needing the Toronto vote to assume power. NOP seems fashioned along the lines of the NDP so is faced with the virtually impossible task of wresting power from the north’s strongest left wing political party. Where leadership will come from to refurbish the Northern Ontario of the past is unknown aside from the fact the Indigenous population is quickly developing into a political force. Hopefully something positive for the north will surface before this part of Canada becomes less densely populated.